chrles Darwin Biography (English Natural scientist)

Charles    Darwin  Biography:

Charles    Darwin   (1809      –  1882)  was    an English Natural scientist who laid down a framework   for the   theory of    evolution   – showing    how      Man  evolved  from      lower life forms.    At  the  time,  his research  and publication   led to  bitter  controversy,    but his                  theory    of        evolution     and    natural selection    later    became   accepted within the scientific community.

Charles Darwin was born  on 12 February 1809 in Shrewsbury,   Shropshire. He  was born into a wealthy and influential family. His              grandfathers    included        –           China manufacturer  Josiah      Wedgwood,           and Erasmus       Darwin,   one      of         the       leading intellectuals of 18th century England.

Darwin  planned     to      study     medicine         at Edinburgh            University,    but     later,  at     the instigation           of         his   father,       changed  to studying                  Divinity      at     Christ’s   College, Cambridge  University.  Darwin  was   not a great student, preferring to spend time in outdoor   pursuits;     he  spent a     lot of time examining        natural     science  and       beetle collecting.     After           gaining     a passionate interest in    natural  science,        Darwin was offered a place on the HMS Beagle to act as a natural    scientist   on a voyage to  the coast of South America.

At the time, religion was a powerful force in society, and most people took the Bible as the infallible, literal      word of God. This included    the   belief that  God created   the world  in seven    days,  and   the  world  was only a few thousand  years old.   However, on the voyage, Darwin increasingly began to   see  evidence of  life being much older. In particular Lyell’s ‘Principles of Geology’ suggested    that  fossils  were evidence of animals  living hundreds   of thousands of years ago.

On the        voyage,     Darwin       made   copious notes   about specimens he  found  on    his voyages.     In  particular, at  the  Galapagos Islands 500 miles west of South America, Darwin was struck by how the Finch was different    on   each    individual   island.       He noticed that        the       Finch  had         somehow adapted   to        the    various    aspects  of   the particular island.

Over the next 20 years, Darwin worked on the   dilemma   of how species   evolve  and can   end              up         being  quite   different     on different islands.  Influenced by the    work of Thomas     Malthus,       Darwin      came     up with  a    theory      of  natural    selection       and gradual evolution over time.

“In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they   succeed      in       adapting       themselves best to their environment.”

– Charles Darwin

Darwin continued to refine his theory, and would intensively breed plants to work on his   theories.      However,         realising           how controversial        his    ideas      were,          Darwin delayed  publishing  them. It  was not until learning    that     another     naturalist,    Alfred Russel       Wallace      had  developed     similar ideas,   that  Darwin   was      galvanised   into publishing his own book.

In       1859,     the       ground-breaking   ‘On       the Origin       of  Species   by    Means of    Natural Selection‘   was published.  It   immediately gained    widespread                         interest                     and attention,       leading    to          intense           debate about   the        contention        that  man     –        by implication was descended from animals like the ape.

“Owing        to       this         struggle    for  life,         any variation,         however        slight               and      from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to     an individual of    any species,         in                 its        infinitely                complex relationship  to other   organic beings   and to                       external nature,   will       tend    to      the preservation    of  that    individual,  and     will generally be inherited by its offspring.”

–       Charles    Darwin,     Origin         of        Species (1859)

However,   by the  time he  died  on 19 April 1882, his ideas had  increasingly become accepted –   at  least by  the  scientific and non-religious       society.  He  was        given      a state burial at Westminster Abbey.

Darwin’s Religious Beliefs

Darwin  was   brought up in  the   Church of England,    and    at     one      point          was being trained   to      be      an    Anglican    priest.      Like many of his generation,  he took the  Bible as        the  literal   word   of God           and        often quoted   it as  a  source of  moral authority. However,    after his epic   voyage to    South America, he became doubtful of the Bible as a  source of     history;     he     also     felt    no reason          why all      religions         couldn’t        be true.

From 1849, he   stopped   going  to  church, though he never considered himself to be an atheist. He  felt that      ‘agnostic’    suited his beliefs more closely.  He      wrote  in his autobiography that he eventually gave up Christianity        as     he         disagreed   with  the conclusion    that    all non-believers    spend eternity in hell.

“I    can   indeed        hardly   see   how       anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so   the plain language of    the  text  seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and   almost  all          my best friends, will     be everlastingly punished.”

He            was    politically           liberal,        being      an opponent   of  slavery.  He experienced the brutality        of      how        people    treated     their slaves in a Spanish colony.

“I have watched how steadily the  general feeling,  as shown at elections,    has  been rising against Slavery. What a proud thing for  England  if she  is         the first   European nation which utterly abolishes it!”